"Daniel!"
"Nope."
"Daniel, wait!"
"Stop following me!"
I had to say, I didn't see that one coming. I mean, I expected him to cry, I expected him to yell. Hell, I even figured he would dance and sing before he would just turn around and start walking away.
"Daniel, slow your stupid ass down!" Amelia yelled and I could see her face burning red and her eyes filling with tears as we all walked after him.
"No, Amelia, no!" He didn't stop, but he looked his shoulder at the three of us. "Just leave! Go somewhere else! Stop following me!"
"I know you don't mean that." She said and he stopped, turning around to face us.
"Really? Amelia, I mean it. Go somewhere else. You have these two strangers with you."
"Hi," I awkwardly said and I couldn't help but let out a small wave.
"They're not strangers. They're my friends. This is Mfundo, and that waving idiot is Theodore."
Feeling suddenly self-conscious, I put my hand down.
"Oh, even better." He tried to turn around but Amelia grabbed his arm and he looked her right into her different-coloured eyes.
"You're such an asshole! Aren't you even going to ask what happened to me these past six days!"
"I – look, Amelia. I'm doing this for your own good. You'll be better off if I'm not around."
"Better off? Look at me!" She motioned to the blood on her clothes. "Does this look any better to you?"
"Just trust me, Amelia. I'm doing this for you."
Then Mfundo stepped forward and Daniel turned to look at him. "Look, I don't really know why you would want to push away your only sister, but I'm afraid we can't allow that."
"Yeah." I stepped forward a little bit, prepared to fight for Amelia but also weary of the axe her brother once again held in his hands.
"Why not?" He asked.
"Because we fought dead bodies looking for you!" Amelia was really trying her hardest not to scream too loudly. "We have killed and watched people being killed over and over again. Daniel, this whole situation is messed up and scary and every time I close my eyes, I pray I'll open them and I'll wake up in my bedroom. I want this all to be a horrible dream, but it isn't. It's scary and messed up and nothing makes sense anymore. Now, I've finally found you, a reminder that maybe this life isn't so scary, and you want to push me away? No. I'm not leaving. None of us are leaving. We've all been desperately searching for our families, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let mine slip through my fingers."
Whoa. Amelia had to take a moment to breathe heavily but her stare never even dropped one iota in its intensity. She was daring him to do something or say something that would piss her off. I was surprised Daniel was holding her glare with his own hard look. I had never met a single person who could hold up to Amelia's glare.
"Fine. Stay behind me, don't say a word, and if you see a Zed, run."
"What's a Zed?" Mfundo asked.
"The – the zombies." Daniel said.
"Oh," I said. "Well, we just call them fle – zombies."
He grunted in acknowledgement and waited for us to form a line and wait to enter class. Whoops, sorry. We weren't in school. Hell, we weren't anywhere near school. So, I had no idea why I just said that. But, anyways, we started to walk.
× × ×
Daniel the fireman. Was I the only one who thought it strange that he was holed up in a hospital?
It was a bricked building that was at least three storeys tall. It was surrounded by a large fence with barbed wires lining the top. There were only a few cars parked in the front, and they seemed to form a sort of protective line. It would have been child's play for anybody to squeeze past them, but I could see how the mindless zombies (flesh-eaters) could find trouble in these cars parked so close together. But they would only provide a minor distraction. Only a minor one.
"One thing you should know." He said as we walked towards the hospital.
"What is it?" Amelia asked.
"I live in this hospital, but I don't live by myself."
There was somebody waiting by the fence, with what appeared to be an assault rifle in her hands. She was short and pretty, with violet highlights in her hair. She wore dark army clothes that seemed too big on her, and that she had to cut to fit her. She looked at all of us as we arrived and I thought I saw her hands tense on her weapon.
"Daniel," she nodded at him and he nodded back.
I found myself nodding as well, and I could only curse myself as I did so.
"Who are these guys?" Her eyes seemed to shoot darts into each of us as she surveyed us.
"Violet, this is my sister, Amelia and her friends." Violet (Sorry, I just assumed her name was Violet and Daniel wasn't calling out the colour of her highlights) looked at Amelia with shocked eyes and Amelia looked at her with equally shocked eyes.
"Everybody," Daniel continued, "this is Violet."
"Ha, I get it." I said with a smile.
She frowned. "Get what?"
"Well, you know. Your name and the highlights in your hair. It's all just – you know." I said a little pleadingly.
She just smiled and said, "Yeah, I know."
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Amelia asked.
Violet took a step back and bowed on the other side of the fence. "My name is Violet James and I am the first line of defence for this stupid hospital."
"Yeah," Daniel said. "I think this conversation would be better preferred if we were on the other side of the fence."
Violet's smile dropped a bit as she said. "Okay, I just need to make sure that none of them are bit."
I gulped for some unknown reason as I imagined this strange yet cute girl prodding all over my body to find a bite mark I knew didn't exist.
"None of us are bit." Mfundo said. "And even if we were, we would tell you."
Would you, Theodore? Eric's voice almost whispered into my ear. I let the cold shiver run down my spine and decided to ignore him. Anyways, we had found somebody from one of our families, even if he wasn't too pleases. So, screw you Eric. Screw you very much.
"Sorry, but we have to check." Violet said. "We're just trying to protect ourselves."
Amelia gave a curt nod. "So, what do we have to do?"
"Well –" Violet began when we heard an all too familiar groan coming from behind Violet.
I looked past her to see a zombie slowly stagger towards her. It didn't really look as bad or bloodied up as the others, so it must have recently turned. It had its eyes closed, but I knew a zombie-walk when I saw one. And inside her so-called Fortress of Solitude. Well, I was the only one who so-called it that, but that shouldn't matter. The point was there was a zombie inside the fence that made everybody jump and my heart quickened.
I was already pulling out my gun, but Daniel quickly grabbed my arm and hissed, "Don't shoot Lucius!"
"Eh?" I asked as I looked at the zombie as it suddenly bent over and started to laugh. It opened its eyes to reveal dark brown eyes that were actually tearing up as the former-zombie was on his knees, fighting desperately for breath as he guffawed.
"Just – hahaha – open the – hahaohjesus – gate, Vio – hahaha!"
I could see a vein throbbing in Violet's forehead as she pulled a set of keys from her baggy pants and quickly unlocked the heavy chains that wrapped around the gate.
"I'm sorry for him." Violet said and pointed her head at Lucius, who seemed to be recovering. "He can be a bit of an idiot." She then turned to him as we opened the gate and walked in. "You idiot, aren't you supposed to be on guard duty on the other side?"
"I got bored."
"I almost shot you!"
"No, you would not have." He said as he wiped the tears from his face. "You've seen this face too many times to shoot it."
I raised my hand before Violet could retort, which I felt she was about to do, even as she wrapped the chains around the gate again. "Well, I was about to shoot you." I brought out my gun and showed it to him. "And I didn't know you weren't a zombie."
His smile dropped as he considered my words. "Yeah, you may be right –"
"He actually is." Amelia said, clearly shocked at the dangerous prank he had just pulled. "That was an incredibly stupid thing to do."
Ah, that's Amelia for you. Doesn't matter if you're older than her (which he was) bigger than her (which he was) and more threatening than her, (his skin was a light brown and had some scars on his arms that intimidated me at least) she would always be ready to tell you how much of an idiot you are.
Daniel whacked Lucius on the back of his head as he walked past him. What? I didn't even see him walk past us.
"Take them on a tour of the place." He told him.
"What?" Amelia asked, stepping forward. "Daniel, it's the first time we've seen each other in a long time. Don't you think you should –"
He turned back to us and his eyes contained a restrained anger and sadness.
"Amelia, I'm tired." He said. "I just want to go to sleep right now after getting my ass handed by a Zed. I feel I've already done enough by bringing you here. You can stay as long as you want. But I'm going to bed now. Lucius will help you, so ask him the questions."
And, wow, that was one of the few times I had ever seen Amelia lose an argument as Daniel turned around and continued walking away, leaving Lucius standing there with an awkward look that said, "Well, that's Daniel for you."
"So, who wants to get started on that tour?" He asked.
× × ×
The hospital wasn't really that huge now that I thought about it. I mean, compared to other hospitals –
"That bastard!"
- I had seen in the past, it was a medium small. Or maybe a small medium. Whichever.
"Self-righteous asshole!"
It looked like it used to be a nice hospital back when infected people didn't bite. I mean, at least, not most of them. Right? Anyways, there was a very nice –
"He can rot in hell for all I care!"
- Garden that had so many beautiful flowers growing at the back. It looked like a place where patients would just walk and forget for a moment that they were sick.
"I'm going to emasculate that son of a –"
The garden was a place of tranquillity.
"I'll tie him to that bed of his and force feed him food until his limbs give up from lack of use and he dies!"
Where anger and pain could be forgotten.
"Oh, he'll regret the day I was born!"
It clearly . . .
"He'll run to the zombies for help!"
Was not . . .
"Daniel, that mother –"
Working.
"Hey, Amelia, don't you think you should calm down." Mfundo said as Amelia sat down on one of the benches.
"Screw him, Mfundo! I don't care what happens to him anymore. Ugh, why did we even come here?"
"Um," Lucius said and Amelia looked at him. Her eyes were red and angry, but she wasn't crying. "And who the hell are you? Why are you staying here with Daniel and some lady with highlights?"
"Yeah, well –" Lucius began but poor him didn't answer fast enough.
"How many of you live here?" Amelia asked. "Daniel said he didn't live here alone, so how many people live here?"
"Like, nine –" He managed to say before Amelia moved on to her next question.
"How the hell have you guys managed to stay alive on your own?"
"Amelia." Mfundo said sharply and she broke the concentrated stare she had been giving Lucius that made even me nervous. He grabbed both her arms and looked her deeply in the eyes.
"I know your upset, but if we want to stay here, we have to act like guests. There is a way to go about this, you know?"
She slowly nodded and I wondered how she hadn't started crying already. "I'm sorry, Mfundo. My brother –"
"He's just been through a lot these past few days." Lucius said.
"And I haven't?" Amelia asked and looked at him.
Lucius held up his hands and said, "Hey, I won't pretend to know what you've been through. Hell, I mean, watching your –" He suddenly frowned and looked at us. "I probably shouldn't say anything. He wouldn't want me to say anything."
"What?" Amelia was now standing and started walking to Lucius, who backed up against a tree. "What happened to him?"
Lucius shook his head, mimed zipping his lips and threw the key away. He shrugged and pointed to his lips. For a second I thought Amelia was going to hit him, but she just moved back and sat back on her bench.
"I guess I should stop asking you questions you obviously won't answer."
She seemed calmer and I marvelled at her ability to go from wanting to murder her brother to remaining calm and asking the right questions. I wished I could my emotions in control like that. "Who else live in the hospital?" She asked.
He held up his hand for us to wait as he turned around a searched in the bushes for a full two minutes until he pulled out the invisible key he had thrown away. Damn, now that was dedication.
"I'll introduce you to them soon enough." He said after he unlocked his lips and waved his hand to the side.
"Why are you guys staying in a hospital?" Mfundo asked. "Is it for the supplies?"
Lucius shook his head. "The army had set up the hospital as a base to heal the sick and the wounded. We were a part of the people there. Eventually, they moved on when the Zeds came and we stayed behind."
"Why did you stay behind?" That was Mfundo who asked that.
Lucius smiled and licked his lips. "The army is basically a walking, screaming target for the Zeds. They generate so much noise wherever they go that staying with them is a death sentence. The worst is they and many with them don't even realise that. So when they left, we stayed behind."
"So how do you protect yourselves?" I asked.
He smiled and reached behind him, where he pulled out a Glock. "We may have relieved some items from them."
"You stole weapons from the army." Amelia said incredulously.
Lucius shrugged. "It's less of an army and more of a group of men trying to keep everybody alive and failing miserably. We just realised that and took what we need to survive. Some guns, ammo, and food. That's it. There's a river close by where we get out water."
"Aren't you afraid that the water's infected?" Amelia asked.
Lucius held up three fingers. "We purify it three times before trying anything with it. It's okay, we're careful."
I still had a few questions to ask, but Amelia asked one more, "What's your relationship with my brother? Did you meet him in the hospital?"
Lucius raise an eyebrow and said. "Nope. He's my boyfriend."
My eyebrows immediately perked up and my mouth was slightly open, but that was nothing compared to Amelia's reaction. She laughed for a few seconds and looked from Mfundo to me, obviously waiting for one of us to join in. When we didn't, she looked at Lucius with a frown.
"You're joking, right?"
Lucius frowned and shook his head. "Nope, I am not."
Amelia's frown was so deep I was afraid it would get permanently stuck like that.
"But, Daniel isn't gay."
Lucius laughed. "Well, somebody better tell his lips that because they have been all over mine plenty of times."
Amelia suddenly stood up and I could see a volcanic anger about to erupt in her.
"What?" Lucius said. "Do you have a problem with having a gay brother?"
She shook her head and grit her teeth. "No, that's not my problem. How long have you guys been dating for?"
He shrugged. "Like, seven months."
"Wow that sounds serious, right Mfundo?" I said, trying to defuse the bomb ticking off in Amelia's head with a toothbrush.
"My problem," Amelia yelled, "is that he's been dating you for seven months, has probably been gay for even longer, and he never even thought to tell his family!"
She was seething, and I could see her mind pulling in her anger, rallying it back and keeping under control. But that anger could still be seen, even by Lucius as he raised an eyebrow, as we all seemed to realise at the same time that the relationship between brother and sister was a hell lot more complicated than we had first thought.
Looking at Amelia, sitting on the bench, looking at the ground with her anger back under control but the taste of it still in the air, I realised that things were going to get a hell of a lot worse before they would get better.